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Our membership represents the very best of local business. Our vetting process is thorough; each member must come highly recommended, and remain so by delivering continually outstanding work for members, their contacts, clients and friends.

View Essex Business Forum Members

Our membership represents the very best of local business. Our vetting process is thorough; each member must come highly recommended, and remain so by delivering continually outstanding work for members, their contacts, clients and friends.

The lunatics were taking over the asylum!

Another dark and damp morning welcomed the early birds to Calcott Hall Farm for what was sure to be an eventful meeting.

For a variety of reasons our usual, highly illustrious leadership team were all absent from the meeting so things were bound to be a bit different this morning….. Whether this was a decision the current leadership team may live to regret was yet to be seen, but rightly or wrongly, the normally well behaved, quiet, and professional “Naughty Corner” has been given the reins, surely this alignment of the stars will never happen again! The lunatics were taking over the asylum!

The reduced numbers lead to an intimate feel to the meeting, we kept to the usual agenda with just a few minor, never to be repeated “upgrades”. Howard Bullock kicked things off with a very wise Education Slot, extolling the virtues of really trying to WOW your clients with those little corporate gifts we all deliver from time to time. Rather than just sending another bottle of wine, how about doing something really special and it’s not about spending more, its about thinking more and he gave some fine examples too.

Before too long it was time to move onto Paul Booth to deliver the performance league with some strong showings so far this month but there was a little dismay from the ranks when the newly elected leadership team seem to have been promoted to joint first place!! Who’d have thought it 😉 Paul also went on to explain the additional special points that were on offer for this week only, including the funny hat competition and the 60 second round mystery word competition….you all got the email…right? Clearly Vince did, displaying a very fetching hat, not to be outdone the charlatans on the top table all donned an array of specialist headgear and cleaned up on the bonus points on offer! Who’d have thought it!

Time to move on with the of the meeting, and we headed into the 60 second round! Howard had allocated each member a “Mystery Word”, mention it in your 60 seconds for extra bonus points!! We also introduced X-Factor style buzzers to buzz out dull and boring 60 second presentations but of course with such a lively group that was never going to be an issue! Vince, awarding the Oscar this week kicked things off by demonstrating the small metallic sign holders that can give signage prominence by using “Stand-Offs” they are not available in Mexico. Mike Rogers offered words of caution about renewing your “loyalty” deal with your current lender…there are better deals out there, and he’s the man to find them for you. Other notable contributions from Rupert, following up on his commitment he gave us all last week, setting himself a “trap” with his Linked In connections. Alan Moller said goodbye Vera, he’ll miss the cheese rolls. Tina showed off her new office signage, very impressive. And a special shout out to Richard for battling through his 60 seconds despite the immature heckling from the top table, taking it all in good jest he went on to tell us how he helped clients out overseas when they’re stuck, that’s not a service you’ll get online or from a High St agent!

We also introduced a new format for the 60 seconds this week, halfway through stopping for a 30-second intermission, giving members a brief but valuable time to catch up on any little jobs that needed attending to. A very worthwhile event.

This week’s Oscar was awarded to Mike Rogers but unfortunately, nobody managed to shoehorn in their mystery word, apart from Stuart, Paul, Howard and Dean for 100 bonus points each….funny that.

This week’s meetings special circumstances meant it wouldn’t have been right to appoint a 10-minute speaker, instead we engrossed ourselves in a very lively Q&A session. With discussions around Wet Plumbing, Insurance, Investing, Buying & Letting it was a lively and informative change from the norm before giving way to the referrals and testimonials round. Despite this week’s japes when it comes to business we all take it seriously, and this week was no different with lots of referrals passed generating real business for our members.

We finished things off with a little referral reality check, and door prize where Matt Barry won a 4 pack of scouring pads. Very useful.

We’ll see you all next week for a regular meeting, hurry back Aiden, Scott & David, all is forgiven!

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14 Comments

I can postulate with hardly any uncertainty that yesterday’s meeting was unlike any other I have attended over my 16 years of networking. I laughed throughout the proceedings which I guess is a good think. Well done The Naughty Corner, you are very entertaining. Mexican Standoff… very good whoever wrote this blog.

This sounds like an experience that should be repeated………every year. Well done chaps!!!!
Very well constructed Blog. This event might just be proof positive of the old army adage, “Don’t volunteer for anything!!!

It was certainly different so well done to the team on the day . I still don’t know how you got the steam to go off on the coffee machine through my sixty seconds which drowned out the fantastic discounts I was giving. Sadly it was for one hour only . well done to Richard as well who took it all in good heart.

Yes i echo that Kevin. Richard well done. The naughty corner were rather naughty, but you kept on going, hats off to you. Talking of hats….did nobody get the extra points email? that’s weird…nor the one about word of the day?… clearly an IT matter …. Plummers where are you ??!?? See you all next week… top table please come back.

Sounds like a lot of fun, but thank goodness there were no visitors. Not sure they’d have understood the quirkiness of it all and would have just put us down as a bunch of nutters.
I’m afraid that I wont be there next week as I’m away on hols, so you’ll have a little bit of lunacy as Paul stands in for me once again. I’m sure that Aidan can keep him in check though.

I thought it was an excellent meeting, well done you naughty lot 😉 the wit, the humour, the hard work that went into creating a very different but relaxed and an enjoyable environment, and I think 25k worth of business recorded, not too shabby at all, definitely should be repeated.
Bravo 😊
Oncore 😉

Essex Business Forum is an association of professional business people and owners of established and reputable SMEs based in Essex which represents every trade and profession, and with the addition of an extended network of businesses in highly specialist fields.

We run weekly business networking groups every Thursday morning in Brentwood, plus other regular events and networking meetings.

We're always looking for new members to join, so if you are interested then come along to one of our meetings.